In episode 100, we talk with Christy Denney about the blogging experience and what lessons you learn over the years from being new to becoming experienced and then weathering ups and down and having to learn new trends and skills.

We cover information about how success is abundant, you need to be persistent and resilience is key to the blogging journey.

Listen on the player in this post or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.

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Guest Details

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Christy Denney has been blogging family friendly recipes since 2008 at The Girl Who Ate Everything. She grew up in Mesa, Arizona and is the youngest of ten kids. She has her degree in Computer Science which has helped her on the backend of her website. She has five kids ranging from ages 6-15 and lives in sunny Florida. She wrote her first cookbook in 2014 and has worked with companies like Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Disney, and Old El Paso.

Takeaways

  • It can take awhile to monetize a site. Depending on if you’re able to work at it part time or full time and then expand your sources of monetization.

  • Conferences are a great way to network, meet other bloggers, find resources and grow as an entrepreneur. Sometimes you have to go outside your comfort zone and attend, meet new people to be able to take the next step.

  • Making connections with other bloggers makes this business that’s primarily online more real. You’re more likely to attend another event or join a mastermind when you see the value of sharing experiences and trade help.

  • Cookbook are a huge undertaking but there is value in them if it’s a goal of yours to reach. Making a cookbook isn’t for the money for sure but it is a good experience. 

  • If you’re a seasoned blogger, it can be tempting to constantly churn out new content, but there’s value in digging into old content and sprucing it up with new photography, keyword research and to follow Google guidelines.

  • There’s value in obtaining an audit on your site to get outside help on what’s important to focus on and make sure the technical pieces are correct. You want to avoid things that are slowing your site down and avoid any no no’s Google has outlined that might have previously been ok. Organic traffic will bloom from these improvements.
  • Resilience is important in blogging. You have to be willing to learn new things, things that take you out of your current skill set and build on them. You must be willing to learn something new things.

  • You don’t have to do everything. Just because its what other bloggers are doing, if you don’t feel good about it in your gut, don’t do it or think about getting a VA.

  • You can’t turn a blind eye to trends but you don’t have to do all of them. Keep in mind what your people want. You can figure this out by interacting with them and asking questions.

  • Success is abundant, it’s not finite. Everyone has a chance to be successful.

  • Be persistent, showing up everyday and working on your craft. You have to find ways to improve, teaching yourself new things. 

  • Why are you doing it? What’s your why for blogging? Define what success is to you.

  • Find times during the day that work for you to do the work that needs to be done. Are you a morning person, night person? Do you need to be available to people at a certain time? Can you work a split shift and do computer work one part of the day? Build your schedule around that. The benefit of this job is that you have that flexibility. 

Transcript

Click for full text.

Intro:

Welcome to Eat Blog Talk, where food bloggers come to get their fill of the latest tips, tricks, and insights into the world of food blogging. If you feel that hunger for information, we’ll provide you with the tools you need to add value to your blog. And we’ll also ensure you’re taking care of yourself because food blogging is a demanding job. Now, please welcome your host, Megan Porta.

Megan Porta:

Food bloggers. Don’t forget to check out the food blogging forum style community that we started over forum.eatblogtalk.com. Finally, there is one place that we can all convene and talk and that isn’t scattered all over Facebook. Here are the things that I am loving about it. It is free. It also allows for categorized discussions on all food blogging topics, and there’s a category for sharing successes, AKA self promotion. So no more holding back about discussing your big wins and things that you’re promoting. Also, everything is in one single spot. So no hopping around from group to group, and there’s an amazing opportunity to network and really get to know your fellow food bloggers in a single place. So come join the discussions that are going on over forum.eatblogtalk.com. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do. Don’t forget. Forum.Eatblogtalk.Com.

Today I am so excited to talk to Christy Denney from The Girl Who Ate Everything. We are going to talk through her 12 year food blogging journey today. Christy has been blogging about family-friendly recipes since 2008 at The Girl Who Ate Everything. She grew up in Mesa, Arizona, and is the youngest of 10 kids. She has a degree in computer science, which has helped her work on the back end of her website. She also has five kids ranging from ages six to 15, and she currently lives in sunny Florida. She wrote her first cookbook in 2014 and has worked with companies such as Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Disney and Old El Paso Christy. I could not be more excited to dig into a conversation with you, but first give us a fun fact about yourself.

Christy Denney:

Okay. Hello. A fun fact about me. I have, I don’t want to say photographic memory, but I do have a scarily good memory for names and places and people and things. So for example, I can remember the first and last names of everyone in my kindergarten class. So often I’ll go home to Mesa, Arizona, and I will see someone that was in my second grade class. I can remember their birthday. I can remember their sisters or brothers and I have to slow play it because I can’t just come out with that because people think I’m stalking them. I’ve done it before, so it doesn’t end well. So I have to slow play it and be like, oh, hi, I remember you.

Megan:

It’s funny. You have to pretend you really don’t know. So I have a similar thing. Mine is with birthdays and license plate numbers, and this is so weird. So one of my first jobs out of college, I started doing that same thing. I would say your license plate number is blah, blah, blah. The guy I was working with was like, how do you know that? Oh, I’m sorry, I just see you pull in. So I can relate to that. I totally have to play dumb. I really don’t know what your license plate number is. I mean, why would I do that? Birthdays too. I remember birthdays from childhood, friends’ birthdays. It’ll be January 10th. I know it’s Lynette’s birthday or whatever.

Christy:

I do the exact same thing that is so funny. I’m always telling my husband, oh, it’s your buddy’s birthday today. He was like, how do you know that?

Megan:

Why do you know that? You have a computer science background so maybe somehow you’ve just got the brain for remembering details and numbers. Maybe that ties into that.

Christy:

You think of your brain as a computer. So you just store it and then you access it when you need it.

Megan:

There’s something to that. I thought it was really interesting to learn that about you too, that you have a computer science background. I did not know that, but it helps with food blogging and just knowing how to take care of that back end. So that was cool to learn too.

Christy:

Yeah, it does. But you know, it’s been a while since I’ve worked in the field, so I know enough to get myself in trouble. I’ll go and try and change stuff then realize, oh, I broke that.

Megan:

But you probably know more than a lot of people. I try to dig into that too. And I’m like, oh, I probably should not have touched that, but it’s tempting. Well, I’m so excited to have you here today. You have been one of the longest standing food bloggers out there, I think, with that just incredible content that has been consistently delivered for so many years. So I think to start off, it would be really fun to hear from you. What inspired you to start your food blog way back in 2008?

Christy:

Thank you. So like I said, I’m the youngest of 10 kids. So I feel like all of us, our mom gave us this really great gift of believing that we could do whatever we wanted. My siblings, they all have these very distinct roles. We have a dietician, we have one that’s in fashion, we have one that’s an artist and we all have these roles. I didn’t know what mine was, I guess. So I moved to Florida and I always knew that I liked cooking, but I didn’t really think it would go anywhere. My story’s a little sad and I’m kind of hesitant to tell it, but it’s the truth. So in 2008, one of my sisters passed away suddenly from a blood clot in her lungs. So we all flew out there for the funeral and we were all grieving together. Then everyone kind of stayed there and continued their process of grieving. I flew back to Florida and I just felt so sad and I didn’t know how to cope with it without my siblings and my parents. So I remember I made a cherry cheese pie recipe that my mom has made forever and my sisters would always steal it and we’d go hide in the closet and eat it with just a fork, just cause the guys don’t appreciate this. We’re just going to eat it. So I made that and I just felt this sense of calm and it was so therapeutic for me. From that point on, I started writing my recipes online and back then you did the whole story. That was such a therapeutic process for me. That’s how it all started.

Megan:

Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your sister. That’s a terrible tragedy, but I do love that your blog started from a place of really deep meaning. I don’t think a lot of us can say that. I think a lot of us are like, well, I just wanted to make money. It doesn’t come from such a meaningful place. So did that carry you through the years? Thinking back to that and the way that you started it?

Christy:

Yeah. So anytime, I mean, you know, because he’d been doing this a long time too.

Megan:

2010.

Christy:

So you’re right behind me. So you definitely have those moments where you get burnout and whenever I get those, thoughts of why am I doing this? Oh my gosh. I just go back to what gave me that strength and what I found my passion for was those family recipes and just the stories behind it.

Megan:

Yes. I find that too. We’ll talk about this in a little bit, but keeping that momentum is really hard, especially when things are so constantly evolving, but I started as very different from yours, but it did start from a place of meaning, I guess you could call it. I really wanted to be home with my boys. I worked at a really fruitless, just unenjoyable corporate job. I just remember feeling this burning desire to get the heck out of there. I never wanted to go back there and experience that again. So anytime that I go through that, why am I doing this? I think about that. I think about all of the freedom that I have, and it’s not always easy. I’m not saying that it’s like a totally free world for us, but I always think about that and it helps me. So I like that you and I both have that thing to go back to.

Christy:

I mean, I’m so grateful that I get to stay home.

Megan:

So true. Things can get hard and things can get lonely, but I always come back to that. I can bring my boys to school myself. I can pick them up. When they’re sick, I can stay home with them. Now during this time when things are really uncertain and kids are home from school, I can be here with them and still work. A lot of people are struggling with that. So grateful. Yes, totally.

Christy:

It’s definitely a little harder.

Megan:

It is not easy. I’m more exhausted at the end of the day for sure. But it’s doable. I can manage it and get by and get most of my work done. So I know it would be impossible to talk through all 12 years of your blogging journey because that’s a lot of years, but can you give us just a brief summary about how things have evolved for you and also give us some of your highlights.

Christy:

For sure. So I had my blog for two years before I monetized it and I felt like I was being a sellout because I put ads on there, which is stupid. I don’t know why I thought that. So two years after I started my blog, I started with plateful. I don’t know if you know who they were, but they are, they were an ad company with General Mills, but you actually had to program your own ads. So I would create a waterfall method where, if you don’t do this ad, then you go to this ad. So that’s also where my background came to be helpful. But because I was doing that, General Mills is an umbrella, which you know because you’re in Minnesota and it has a ton of companies underneath it. So General Mills is the umbrella. So Plateful was under there and then Tablespoon is a recipe website. So they asked me to make recipes for them. I started writing for them, just a couple of recipes a month and I could also post them on my blog, which was nice. Because of that, I’m assuming because of that, General Mills asked me to come out and do videos with Betty Crocker.

Honestly, it’s like meeting Tom Brady, if you’re into football. Although she’s not a real person. So I went out to General Mills and Mark Burnett, the producer of Survivor, he was going to be producing the videos. So it was really cool. I was so excited. I was like, this is my big break. I go there, they do my hair, they do my makeup. I completely botched it. I’m not being humble. I’m just telling you video is not my thing. So that was actually a low light, but I met so many people at General Mills. They are the nicest people ever. They still send me gifts for when I had my babies, they sent me like a bracelet. They have just kept in touch with me over the years. Old El Paso is also one of the branches of General Mills. I’ve done sponsored work over the years, but I’m really picky and I’m really reluctant to do it unless I absolutely love it. Unless it’s in my drawers and my fridge. Are you the same way?

Megan:

Totally. I’m so, so selective. It’s just so much work. I feel like if I’m going to put forth that much effort, I need to really truly believe in what I’m working on.

Christy:

Exactly. So Old El Paso; I love Mexican food. I’m from Arizona and instead of dictating a lot of sponsored work, they will say, you need to say this and you need to say this. It takes away the whole authenticity of the whole thing. But they were like, do what you want, use our tortillas, use whatever. They just let me do my own thing. So I worked with them for over six years and they were so good to me. Every time I have a baby, I’m like we’re going to do one less post a month or whatever. But I just feel like it’s important with sponsored work, if it’s not a clear yes, then it’s an absolute no. I’ve held true to that over the years.

Megan:

Yeah. I’m so with you on that.

Christy:

Then Pinterest came along in 2011 and that was big for all of us food bloggers. I remember it was an invitation only. So you’d have to get an actual invitation or email them. Do you remember that?

Megan:

I remember when it was so new that we were all like, what is this thing? Then it just evolves so fast after that.

Christy:

So fast. I remember I had a baby in 2011 and that’s when it came out or was that it started really to get big. I remember I would be nursing and I would scroll through and just wait till it stopped. Because it would actually stop. Yes, there weren’t that many pictures. Then I was like, okay, I guess I better go to bed. So Pinterest was big for food bloggers. Then in 2013 was the first time I went to a food blogging conference.

Megan:

Which one was it?

Christy:

It was in Austin, Texas. Blogher.

Megan:

Oh yes.

Christy:

Yes. So that’s the first time I ever met another blogger, ever.

Megan:

It’s momentous, isn’t it? That first time when you in-person meet people, you’re like, oh, you really exist outside of your little blogging world. It’s life-changing.

Christy:

It really was. So my sister-in-law, her name is also Christie Denny, which makes things interesting when we all get together. But she was blogging at Sweet Treats and More. So I roomed with her, Oh Sweet Basil and Ambitious Kitchen. I had never met any of them. It was such an eye opening experience too, that conference experience. You might learn some things, but those relationships that you make at that conference. You’re so much more likely to pin someone’s stuff or if you know them, you’ll share that they’re pretty cool. They were so nice. Have you gone to a lot of conferences?

Megan:

I went to a few of those Blogher conferences and did not have the best experience there. I met some great people, but I feel like they’re so different now. Now they’re really inclusive. Before I felt like anyone who was ever speaking, was just untouchable. You could never talk to them. I remember I ran into Elise Bauer on an elevator and I was starstruck to the point of not being able to speak. I was like, oh my gosh, you’re Elise. A friend, who’s not a food blogger, was with me. She was looking at me like shut up, Megan, stop talking. She was so kind and nice and she was like, oh, it’s so nice to meet you. I just felt like we were not allowed to talk to people that were so much more experienced than us. But now I feel like there’s a different vibe at conferences. It is not the same thing. But I do agree that conferences are great for the information, but they’re so important for making those connections. You keep those connections forever. The in-person connection is really huge.

Christy:

It absolutely is. So in 2014 is when I published my cookbook. When did you write yours?

Megan:

So mine was 2016, I believe. It was only like two or three years ago.

Christy:

So it’s, it’s funny because people don’t care that you’ve had a blog for 12 years, but they’re like, oh, you have a cookbook? They just think that is the coolest thing ever. I have mixed emotions about my cookbook. It’s one of those things where there’s such a learning curve that I wish I could do it again.

Megan:

What would you do differently if you could do it again?

Christy:

So I wish I had more time. So in 2013 they gave me six months. I had had offers before. Finally I just felt like it was the right time and the right company to do it. Which in hindsight it probably wasn’t. I was pregnant and so I had some food aversions and it was my fifth child. So I had what I’d had five kids under the age of eight.

Megan:

Things were crazy.

Christy:

It was football season. My husband plays for the Dolphins and so he’s pretty much just gone. So I was like, oh, after I have a baby, I’ll just pop it out. Pop out the recipes, not the baby. I ended up having postpartum, which I haven’t had with any of my kids. People just kept telling me, oh, you’re stressed and you’re just exhausted. I’m like, no, I know what that feeling is. This is different. I’ve had other people that have had postpartum, I kind of said, oh, you just need to go read a good book and you just need to snap out of it. I didn’t realize that it was such a chemical thing that you can’t pop out of. So that was hard for me. So every time I look at my cookbook, I have these twisted memories of it because it was really hard. I’m glad I did it, but next time I would probably give myself more time. Actually the day I handed in my manuscript, they said, oh, we have this idea for another one. Would you like to do another one?

Megan:

Oh wow, too soon.

Christy:

Too soon, too soon. I mean for you, what would you have done?

Megan:

Same exact thing. My boys were older, so I wasn’t going through having young children at home or postpartum or anything. But I did experience depression during the creation of my cookbook. I’m not kidding. I had maybe touched or dabbled in depression in my life a little bit here and there, but there was nothing like that stretch. I don’t know if the cookbook set it off or if it was just a coincidence, but it was terrible. So I too look at my cookbook and I get kinda just sad. I’m really proud of it. I love it, but it makes me sad too. I really wish that it wouldn’t have coincided with that experience.

Christy:

Right. Okay. It’s just this, why? Why?

Megan:

Irony, right?

Christy:

I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.

Megan:

Yeah, it’s crazy. I would like to do another, but I had such negative feelings about that whole thing. That experience that I just haven’t been brave enough to launch into. I think eventually. But like you said, I’m really glad I did it and I’m really proud of it and I love the work that came out of it, but there are those feelings. Maybe next time it’ll be different.

Christy:

That’s so interesting that we both share that.

Megan:

I wonder if that happens with others too, or are we the only ones?

Christy:

I don’t know! Someday though. I’m not saying it’s off the table, but someday, maybe. Who knows.

Megan:

Well, how about the content that went into it? Do you look at it and are you really proud and are you happy with what you put in it and how it turned out?

Christy:

Yes. I mean, I did find there was a typo that got through. You find things that you’re like, no.

Megan:

Yeah. I had a few of those too. Oh, this one’s embarrassing. So my sister called me a week after it had been published and she was like, so I was going to make your banana cream pie cookies, but there’s no banana ingredient in the entire recipe. My heart sank and I just started crying. I was like, no. I was mortified. I thought, they’re going to take all my books off the shelves. They’re not going to sell anything. So I contacted the publisher and they were like, yeah, this happens, no big deal. I was like, what? This is a huge deal. There’s a banana recipe with no banana ingredients. That’s not cool. But I think that happens to everyone. I mean, maybe not to the scale that I experienced, but typos slip through. So you’re always going to find those things.

Christy:

But you always feel like there’s so many editors and so many people looking at it that how could it, but it does.

Megan:

I know it’s crazy.

Christy:

The profitability of cookbooks, I mean, maybe yours, unless you’re a number one.

Megan:

Mmn mmn. I’m not, no.

Christy:

Right. I mean, you make as much, probably in a month or two on your blog as the whole cookbook, so it’s not for the money.

Megan:

No, it’s definitely not. I think some people do think that; this is just going to kill it. This project is going to tip me over the edge, but that has not been my experience either. I think if I would have worked maybe a little bit harder in promoting and I did not work very hard with that part of it, maybe I’d doing a little bit better, but it’s one of those things where you get to the end and it’s so much work and so exhausting that you just want nothing to do with it for a little while. Did you find that too?

Christy:

Oh, for sure. Also they want you to promote it and that’s so it’s like really, so not my personality to show, look what I did here.

Megan:

You can only do it so much too. I would put it around Facebook and then all of my friends and family were like, enough already. Yes. We’ve seen this. So stop. So after your cookbook, that was in, what did you say, 2014?

Christy:

Yeah, that was the end of my highlights.

Megan:

Okay. So after that, have you just been focusing on just putting up content and then also I was going to ask you how much new content you put up versus combing through old content?

Christy:

Yeah, so I get really bored, so I like new stuff all the time, but I have been going through the old stuff and had great success with it. So that’s definitely something that. I had an audit with Casey Markee that he told me, he actually said, don’t do any new content. You have enough content for 12 years. You need to go back to the old stuff. You have that Google juice because of their older links. That’s what you need to be doing. So I try to do that, but like I said, I can’t help myself.

Megan:

Well, it’s hard not to create new stuff. So are you combing through a lot of your old stuff and just updating photos, updating recipes, what is your process with that?

Christy:

I obviously posted them for a reason. There’s a couple that I could say goodbye to, but yeah, updating the photos and SEO and all of that. Have you done an audit with Casey?

Megan:

I have not. I’m scared.

Christy:

Okay. Well he’s a little intense, so you should be scared. Just kidding. I just did a mini audit because I’m cheap and I thought it was great for me, but since he went through my site. I’m from a computer science background and he found stuff that I couldn’t find. That was slowing down my site or just a major no-no for Google and taught me the right way to do SEO. I had it in April 2019, and since then, my organic search traffic has been up by 230%. Oh, that’s amazing. So it was definitely worth it.

Megan:

Yeah. It’s worthwhile. I’ve heard so many people say that too. I just have so much wrong with my site. My website basically exploded in January and it was devastating and I’m picking up the pieces and it’s a long story, but I just have a lot wrong with it. So I want to get a few things fixed before I contact anyone, because I know they’ll just yell at me and be like, this is wrong and this is wrong. So I wasn’t saying that Casey is scary, Casey. I don’t think you’re scary. But I’m scared of hearing someone say, why did you do this? Because I did so many things wrong in the beginning for so many years. So just getting through that.

Christy:

Yes, he’s not scary. He’s very direct, which I appreciate because that’s why I hired you.

Megan:

Yeah, exactly. Really. The audits are not cheap. So if you’re going to put up money for an audit, you want someone who’s going to be really direct and tell you exactly what you need to do and what’s wrong. It’s hard to hear what’s wrong with your site because it’s like our babies. We put so much blood, sweat, and tears into them, but it’s good. You need to know what’s going on on the backend.

Christy:

It’s funny you say that because I have a friend who’s starting a blog. So I went over to her house a while ago to help through some things. When you’ve had a blog for so long, you have these layers. There’s so many layers over the years of stuff that you have added to it or worked on it. It’s hard to tell someone who’s just starting a blog, all of that in one, to sit down, you know what I mean? So it also made me appreciate though that all these years we’ve been working on it and adding to it. You know what I mean?

Megan:

Yeah, I do. That kind of leads me in, I was going to just talk about the fact that you’ve been in the game for so long, and it means that you have to be a resilient person. Because there are so many moving parts that are constantly changing before our eyes. So how has it been for you to keep up with these changes and how have you stayed motivated?

Christy:

How have I kept up with changes? You have to be, like you said, you have to be resilient. Video popped up in 2015 and 16 and you have to learn all of that. That’s one thing that my background, I worked in forensic software and they would just hand me a book and say, Hey, learn this language. So the ability to learn, you have to be able to do that and you have to be willing to do it. But I also think that you don’t have to do everything.

Megan:

So how do you pick and choose? I mean, how do you know what’s important and what to focus on and what not to?

Christy:

Well, do you remember when we all started sharing each other’s things on Facebook? We still do that too. Everyone else shares as well. That was a change that was really hard for me and that I totally resisted because I just didn’t understand it. Why would someone want to come to my page and see everyone else’s stuff? Why don’t they just go to their page? But it’s kind of the nature of the beast. Sometimes you have to play the game to survive. Does that make sense? So that was one of the things that I really struggled with. But in those share groups, when a bigger blogger would share my stuff, my page grew a lot. So it was helpful. But actually sharing all this stuff and scheduling that it was kind of sucking my soul. That was the first time I was like, okay, I need to get a VA. That’s something I could hire out so that I can spend my time on better things.

Megan:

That’s a good point. So when it gets to the point of you feeling like your soul is being sucked out of you, because I think that’s terrible, but we’re all there at some point because there are, like I said, there are so many different pieces. Not everything is going to sing to us and light us up. So there are going to be those things that just feel like, oh, I’m so drained. So that is a great time to look into outsourcing and finding a really good VA or someone to help you. So how did you go about that process? How did you find a VA that worked well with you?

Christy:

So like many of us, I was in a group, Food Bloggers Helping Each Other.. So I just looked on there for people. Are you in that group?

Megan:

I don’t think so. No.

Christy:

So Food Bloggers Helping Each Other. There were a lot of recommendations and people kept recommending the same names over and over. So that’s how I found someone that has been tried and used that people trust. Also in 2016, my Facebook page was hacked.

Megan:

Oh no!

Christy:

So they were posting inappropriate images and that’s when I took a huge hit in my following. People like teachers are like, I’m so sorry I have to unfollow you. I can’t be a teacher and I’m like, I had no control for about a week and a half. I went to Food Bloggers Helping Each Other. Luckily, you know how Facebook is, it’s so hard to find a contact over there. Someone had a friend that worked there and they fixed it within a day. So for me, having people that you can trust or like-minded people, like a group that you can ask questions for me, my sister-in-law, she was always the one that was telling me, oh, this new thing is coming out. Oh, you need to do this. So she was my source. She’s switched to lifestyle workouts and stuff like that. So I don’t have as much of the insight on that anymore.

Megan:

It is good to have that inner circle with insights. I am part of just a really small mastermind group and we meet weekly. Just like the insight that comes from those ladies is so huge, they’ll mention just something random. I’m like, I have not heard of that, but it’s just good to be in the loop. I think finding that group of people, or even if it’s a Facebook group or even just a few close blogging friends to enlighten you and things happen. So the Facebook thing I wanted to touch on because that is devastating and knock on wood that has never happened to me. But I’ve heard that that has just almost sunk people. How did you get past that? I mean, that’s gotta be a really devastating thing.

Christy:

I remember I was meeting with some friends that night, when that was all happening and it was like you said, it was devastating, but I feel like people who aren’t in this industry don’t see why that would be a big deal. Oh, that’s too bad. But no, this is my business, it was. So I had to snap myself out of it and be like, it’ll be okay. You just have to know that you will get through it, hopefully. And if you don’t, I don’t know. There’s been a lot of times over the years that little things like that have happened, but you do bounce back eventually.

Megan:

It seems like the end of the world at the moment. But when you look back, it’s just a little blip. It’s one of those other little things that happens because they do. Websites go down. I remember having my website down for 16 hours. I remember the number of hours and it was overnight and I was awake all night and I couldn’t sleep. Everyone thought I was crazy. Why are you freaking out about this? This is my business. Like you just said.

Christy:

Not to mention, you’re getting a hundred emails of people saying to you, do you know your website’s down?

Megan:

I know, exactly. Don’t remind me. I had a friend, I think she sent me a message on Instagram during that time. She was like, I went to Pinterest and found one of your recipes and it’s going nowhere. I’m like, stop. I can’t hear anymore. But it is, it’s a big deal at the moment. Just knowing that in the grand scheme of things and your blog, it’s really a little deal. For newer bloggers listening, to expect that sort of thing, because inevitably for sure this sort of thing will happen. You will get hacked. Well, hopefully not, but something along those lines will happen eventually. So we kind of touched on this just how we stay current in a constantly changing industry. You mentioned just doing those things that maybe you don’t want to do, but are trending and you have to dive into. Do you have any other advice for people about how to stay current when things are always changing?

Christy:

Well, I feel like you can’t turn a blind eye to trends, but you also don’t need to do all of them. So for me,my husband, he is very passionate about the keto diet. If you talk to him, he will somehow bring it up. If you ask, or he’s very passionate and he’s put people through keto camp, our friends. So I was cooking keto and that made sense for our family and for my blog. I’ve started putting keto recipes on there because I feel like to truly understand it, you have to live it. So I did it for three months. I’m cooking for our family and for him. So I know how to cook that way, what the macros need to be. So for us, that has been great. It’s actually, some of his recipes have been, one of the biggest recipes on my blog. He made a pizza crust recipe. I don’t know if you’re familiar with keto, have you done keto?

Megan:

I’ve not done keto. So I’m not super familiar.

Christy:

Well, it’s really hard to make a pizza crust that actually is crisp. So he came up with this and people have gone bananas over it. So I feel like there’s the instant pot trend. There’s all the trends that have come and you don’t have to do all of them, but you also do need to, I guess, try. If that’s what people want. You know what I mean?

Megan:

If that’s what people are wanting from you.

Christy:

Also if they make sense to you and what’s natural for your family.

Megan:

To fit in with your brand a little bit. I feel like the Instant Pot and appliances like that really can fit in anywhere. No matter what diet you’re focusing on or lifestyle, even if you do just straight up comfort food, it could fit in there. So I like that advice. Just experimenting and seeing what fits in with you. So it’s interesting that your husband’s keto recipe is one of your most popular now. That’s crazy. That’s so cool. Does he feel like, yeah, that’s right.

Christy:

No, he’s a man of few words. He’s not shy, but yeah, he would never say that. Also I think the videos. Everyone was doing videos and now they’re doing them with them in front of the camera. That for me has never obviously worked. Because I told you that story earlier, it’s never been natural to me. So I’m not doing that, but I still do the hands and pans videos. Do you know the company Inspo?

Megan:

Yes. I have heard of them. Yep.

Christy:

So they wanted me to do it, so they came and filmed six videos in one day. I will say that by the end, I was a lot more comfortable, but, well, you know this about me. I got nervous, but I had hives all over my body. I couldn’t sleep the night before. So for me, I am doing video, but I’m doing it my way. I’m still just doing it without me in them. I know that people say you have to be in them, but you know what? I’m not going to do it!

Megan:

I don’t think you have to be. I think people do video in so many different ways and you can really get creative with it. Right now we are experimenting with taking some of our older hands and pans recipe videos, and just doing voice overs. So I just sit here on my microphone and I record something cool about the recipe that I liked. Instant pot cake is really dense and delicious and you don’t have to walk through the steps, but it’s just something different, but it’s not putting myself in front of the camera. So I think if you are one of those people that doesn’t like being in front of the camera, there are so many other ways you can do it, but definitely do some video. I think it’s really valuable. Don’t you think so still?

Christy:

Yes, absolutely. I also think you just have to always keep in mind what your people want, what do your people want? Because I know for me, a lot of the trends, they don’t care about that. My audience and my audience is basically, like family with kids, quick, easy recipes. If there’s a long list of ingredients they’re not going to do it. I’m not going to do it. So just what makes sense for you? For me, the one pan dinners have been huge just because that’s what I like. I dunno. What about you?

Megan:

Yeah, same. I test out the waters on Instagram a lot. Because I think that’s a really great platform for seeing what people are wanting from me. I know a lot of other bloggers are doing that too. I know you do that too. You do polls and you ask people what their thoughts are on certain things. I think that’s a really smart way to go because otherwise you’re just guessing. Email lists are also great for that. Sending out emails and saying, what do you want from me? Especially during times like this one, when we’re navigating uncertain waters together. It’s really great to just see what people want from you and need from you. What are some other ways that you engage with your audience? I know you’re great on Instagram, but do you have any other ways that you really get into it with them?

Christy:

No. I mean, I have an email list, but Instagram is definitely my favorite way to engage where I still am figuring myself out there to be honest because I get so nervous.

Megan:

Oh, you never look nervous. You are always cool, calm and collected.

Christy:

I don’t know. Is that something you can get over? I don’t know. I feel like I’ve been doing it for years and I still get so nervous.

Megan:

Over time it’s gotten easier for me, but I am still that way too. I remember the first few times I did it, I had a friend encouraging me. She was like, you need to get on it. You need to show your face on Instagram. I just was like, no, I don’t. I don’t. I was so freakishly nervous those first few times, it was just awkward. But at least I did it; at least you’re doing it.

Christy:

What I always try to think about is think about the people that you like to follow. What do you like about them? You like that their face is on there. You like that they’re sharing their lives with you, right?

Megan:

For sure. Yeah. Everyone’s different, but I like the stories that have faces sprinkled in for sure.

Christy:

Sprinkled. Yes. That’s a good way of putting it.

Megan:

Not the whole thing. The diatribes where you’re like, oh my gosh, I cannot listen to you anymore. All right. So I know there are food bloggers, listening, Christy, who would love to hear encouragement from you because you’re such a long hauler. You’ve been through so much and you have stood the test of time. So I just hope that you have something encouraging to help people move forward and not give up. I know there are a lot of new food bloggers that have been popping up in the past few years and they’re really looking for that value and encouragement, which is one of the reasons I started this podcast. So I know you have something encouraging, so let’s hear it.

Christy:

Well in 2014, I think was a year that I feel like a lot of people were starting blogs. So I would have people say, Hey, do you mind if I come over and ask you questions about starting a blog. So they’d come over and we would talk about it and then they would go home. They’d start a blog in three to four months. Then they’d be like, I’m done. I can’t do this anymore. I’m not seeing success. So I guess my main point would be, don’t give up. I feel like there’s enough room on the playground for everyone. I feel like success is abundant. I don’t feel like it’s finite. I feel like everyone has a chance to be successful. So as long as you’re working on your craft and you’re persistent and you’re showing up every day, you can do it. But you have to try to find ways to improve your photography. You gotta be teaching yourself how to do things in the kitchen. Also think to yourself, why are you doing this? Are you doing this for the money? That’s fine. Just why are you doing it? Are you doing it for the money? Maybe you’re doing it because you love cooking. Maybe you’re doing it because you like to share your knowledge. Maybe you’re doing it because you enjoy photography. So I guess find your reason. Why are you doing it? Then ask yourself what your definition of success is. Is your definition of success growth? Is it stability and income? Maybe success to you is showing up everyday by making at least two posts a day. I guess just define what success is to you. I have met people that have decided that it’s not their true passion. Great. At least they figured that out before they’ve done this for a couple of years.

Megan:

That’s true. And you feel it right? I know that I’ve seen people kind of come and go too, but you just can see that they’re not super passionate about it. They don’t have that zeal inside of them that someone like me or you has because we’ve kept at it for so many years. But yeah, it’s not for everyone. I love what you just said about defining success because that is going to look differently for everybody. So one person might see success as like I put up 150 new recipes in a year or I became an SEO expert or there’s so many different things you could define that way. So I think that’s really smart. I don’t even know how I would define success for myself. So I’ll have to evaluate that.

Christy:

No and same with myself because to be honest. So a couple years ago I went on a brand trip and there were some really successful bloggers there. I came home kind of thinking, oh, what have I done with my life? One of them, I know she made more than $2 million a year. The other one flew in on a private jet. I was like, oh my gosh. Have I not been working hard enough? Why am I not at this level? My husband, he’s always the source of sound advice. He’s like, look at it as a graph. So if you look at a graph; think of your happiness. At some point, it’s diminishing returns, because let’s be honest, the more successful you are, there are more emails, there’s more stress, there’s more everything. So at some point your happiness will go down, if you’re looking at it as a graph. So where do you think you are on that? And I said, well, I’m happy. I feel like I’m in this for the marathon. I know you too. This isn’t a sprint. It is a marathon. For me, I’m doing what I can with five kids at home. They will always be my priority. I found out a long time ago that for me, I can’t do computer work during the day because I just get really irritated at everyone. So I learned that a long time ago that I can’t do that. For everyone it’s different. So I’m a late nighter or I work from 830 to 1230, at least every day. But that’s when I thrive in that’s when I get a lot done.

Megan:

Finding the times that work for you for the right work too, like you mentioned, a lot of people can get up super early and work, like kill it on the computer. Some people have to wait till after the kids are in bed. I think it really just depends.

Christy:

You are so scheduled. You are so good. You’re my hero because you know how to do it.

Megan:

Well, when you mentioned getting irritated, I have certain times during the day where I just get so irritated and I need to figure this out because it’s really annoying. But four to 7:00 PM, that should be my time to not be irritated with my family. I’m still working on that. It’s a work in progress all the time.

Christy:

It really is. But like I said, I want to do this till I’m 80 or 90. I just love it. Even if I wasn’t getting paid, I would still be sharing the recipes. Maybe not three, I am now.

Megan:

Well that definitely shines through Christy. I mean, when I look at your site, I can just see you are resilient, you’ve got amazing content. You have passion and heart. I think that’s one of the things that makes you really successful and awesome. So you have given tons of encouragement and I was going to ask you about balancing content, but we kind of talked about that; new content versus old. Oh, I wanted to ask you how many recipes do you have on your site right now?

Christy:

Well, I think I have 1300. How many do you have? You have more than that.

Megan:

No, actually, I had about a thousand and then I started listening to other podcasts where Casey Markee was talking about getting rid of the stuff that just weighs your site down, especially with all that old stuff that was really pointless for me to put up in the first place. So I started combing through that and I’ve been doing that for about a year and just getting rid of the recipes I didn’t believe in or redoing a recipe that I really loved. So I’m kind of in the process of doing that. So now I have about, I think 850.

Christy:

Oh, see, I’m still combing through mine. So I’m sure that number has dropped.

Megan:

It’s a lot though. I wonder how Google sees our sites with so much recipe content. Is it, they get there and they’re like, I’m so overwhelmed. I don’t even know where to start. I just worry about that. There’s so much there. I envy people who started like four or five years ago who have just figured it out. They’ve got solid content. There’s nothing weighing their sites down.

Christy:

I’ve thought about that too. I have deleted or redirected to a similar one. If you’re like me, I like this apple muffin recipe better.

Megan:

Instead of having five apple muffin recipes, maybe pick your best one and go with that. We had such a great conversation. Just for the record, I’ve wanted Christy on the show since I started. So I am just so happy to finally have had a conversation with you. So I feel amazing.

Christy:

Oh, well, thank you for having me.

Megan:

Yes, Christy. Thanks for sharing all that you have today. I know that you already shared some words of inspiration. Do you have anything else before we say goodbye?

Christy:

I actually do. Okay. So I’ve been listening to Breene Brown. I love her. She said that, “perspective is the function of experience.” So you have to think about that for a second. But what that means to me is, when new things come out and you’re trying to like, oh my gosh, I have to do this or something breaks and you lose half your traffic. We know from experience, you and I, because we’ve been doing this a long time, that yes it stinks, but we will get through it. Perspective is the function of experience. We know it’s just a blip. So just having that mindset that you take it with a little more stride, you know, when things happen.

Megan:

Yes. So true. It’s such a simple line, but it does require a little bit of thought to really let it sink in. But I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Even with our current situation, our kids don’t know, actually we don’t know this is the first time we’ve been through a pandemic or anything, but we do know that we have had hard things before. We’ve had other things in our history happen and we’ve made it through. But our kids don’t know that. So I think it’s important to write the narrative for them or help them know that we will get through this.

Megan:

Being an example. I love that. That was amazing, Christy. Thank you. I will put show notes up for this conversation that we’ve had today and anyone interested in looking at those, you can find those at eatblogtalk.com/girlwhoate. Christy, I think we all know where to find you, but tell my listeners the very best place to find you online.

Christy:

I think Instagram. So I’m at the @thegirlwho8everything on Instagram and the eight is a number. So that’s where I would go. Thank you.

Megan:

Yes. Thank you for being here again. Thank you for listening today, food bloggers. I will see you next time.

Outro:

We’re glad you could join us on this episode of Eat Blog Talk. For more resources based on today’s discussion, as well as show notes and an opportunity to be on a future episode of the show, be sure to head to eatblogtalk.com. If you feel that hunger for information, we’ll be here to feed you on Eat Blog Talk.

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